Project Gutenberg's The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi, by Giacomo Leopardi

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Title: The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi

Author: Giacomo Leopardi

Translator: Frederick Townsend

Release Date: September 19, 2006 [EBook #19315]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE POEMS OF
GIACOMO LEOPARDI

TRANSLATED BY
FREDERICK TOWNSEND

NEW YORK AND LONDON
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press
1887

COPYRIGHT BY
R. T. TOWNSEND
1887

Press of
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York

TO M. N. M.
SISTER OF THE TRANSLATOR
THESE POEMS
ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY THE EDITOR

PREFACE.

Giacomo Leopardi is a great name in Italy among philosophers and
poets, but is quite unknown in this country, and Mr. Townsend
has the honor of introducing him, in the most captivating
way, to his countrymen. In Germany and France he has excited
attention. Translations have been made of his works; essays have
been written on his ideas. But in England his name is all but
unheard of. Six or seven years ago Mr. Charles Edwards published
a translation of the essays and dialogues, but no version of the
poems has appeared, so far as I know. Leopardi was substantially
a poet,--that is to say, he had imagination, sentiment, passion,
an intense love of beauty, a powerful impulse towards things
ideal. The sad tone of his speculations about the universe and
human destiny gave an impression of mournfulness to his lines,
but this rather deepened the pathos of his work. In the same
breath he sang of love and the grave, and the love was the more
eager for its brevity. He had the poetic temperament--sensitive,
ardent, aspiring. He possessed the poetic aspect--the broad white
brow, the large blue eyes. Some compared him to Byron, but the
resemblance was external merely. In ideas, purpose, feeling,
he was entirely unlike the Englishman; in the energy and fire
of his style only did he somewhat resemble him. Worshippers
have